Homeopathy for Farm and Garden E-Book

Vaikunthanath Das Kaviraj

• Herausgeber: Narayana
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 523

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

A pioneering new book on homeopathy for plant diseases. Vaikunthanath Das Kaviraj, an experienced homeopath, stumbled by accident upon the homeopathic treatment of plants when he was asked to treat a rust problem in apple trees. The apples had dark red rings on the skin and needed more watering than normal. The symptoms of redness with thirst fitted the remedy Belladonna, which he duly administered. To everyone’s surprise, the rust problem disappeared. What‘s more, the apples the following year tasted noticeably better. For Kaviraj, this was a turning point. In the next twelve years, he undertook intensive research in this area, employing homeopathy for all kinds of plant diseases. This book focuses on the homeopathic treatment of plants in cases of malnourishment, parasitic and fungal attack, bacterial and viral disease, damage, and weed infestation. Alongside well-known homeopathic remedies such as Calendula for damage during repotting or Calcium phosphoricum for root rot, he also presents less common remedies, such as Hyssopus for bacterial rots and blights, and Mentha viridis for pest control, as well as Ocimum basilicum for tomato diseases and Ricinus communis for pests in viticulture. A profoundly thought-provoking book that could revolutionize the future of farming. The new edition offers several key improvements: - The previous alphabetical arrangement has been replaced with a helpful new layout structured by topic, making the book simpler and easier to use as a practical reference work. - Using input from the latest studies and practical field experience, many interesting new remedies have been added. These provide greater choice and help you to precisely select the best remedy to treat plant disease in a more specific way. Some of these remedies have already been successfully applied, as shown by user feedback in our internet forum. - Pests, diseases, and nutrient problems are illustrated by 137colored photos. “Homeopathy for plants opens up a whole new and exciting area of exploration that may yield major benefits for agriculture. Who knows the boundaries of homeopathy?” Anne Sheptyck, Canada "... The author has accumulated an enormous amount of useful information here in a groundbreaking book. The Materia Medica and Repertory are easy to follow and the selection of a suitable remedy should not pose too much difficulty. This technique is certainly worth trying as it is neither expensive nor time-consuming and will not have an adverse effect on the environment." Tony Scofield Experience with slugs: "Helix tosta 6: I initially had my doubts whether this would work. I sow my vegetables in winter on the windowsill. Later I move the seedlings to a cold frame – from then on, I always needed to spread slug pellets otherwise nothing survives. This year I tested Helix tosta as described in the book: 1st dose 10 ml in 10 liters of water; 2nd dose a week later, 5 ml in 10 liters water; 3rd dose another week later, 2.5 ml in 10 liters water. The results were amazing. After just one dose, there was not a single slug to be seen! The seedlings were untouched. Later I moved the plants to the field and even there they were undisturbed for quite some time. The snails ate a few plants but didn't return the next day. In greenhouses, the remedy is ideal. Before, I'd already given up planting lettuce. Even in the greenhouse, everything got eaten up. This year, I started another trial out of curiosity. I treated the plants after planting as described. 19 out of 20 plants survived untouched, which I found very convincing." (JM)

Leseprobe

Vaikunthanath Das Kaviraj

Homeopathy for Farm and Garden

Plant and Soil Problems and their Remedies

Vaikunthanath Das Kaviraj Homeopathy for Farm and Garden

Second revised edition 2011 Third revised edition 2012 Fourth revised edition 2015

ISBN 978-3-95582-194-4

Cover picture © Carlos Beseke

Narayana Verlag, Blumenplatz 2, 79400 Kandern, Germany Tel.: [phone] E-Mail: [email protected]

© 2012 Narayana Verlag GmbH

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording, nor may it be stored in any retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for private or public use without the written permission of the publisher.

The publisher makes no representation, expressed or implied, with regard to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made.

“This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession and the saintly kings understood it that way.”

(K. D. Vyasa, Bhagavad Gita 4/2)

“Oh good soul, does not a thing, when applied therapeutically, cure a disease which was caused by the very same thing?”

(K.D. Vyasa, Bhagavad Purana 1/5/33)

“A crank is a man with a new idea – until it catches on.”

(Mark Twain)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

1. Foreword

Agribusiness and Toxicity

A Quantum Leap

Consciousness: the Missing Link

2. Introduction to the Second Edition

3. Foundation

Easily Understandable Homeopathic Principles

A. The Cause and Cure of Disease

B. The Law of Similars

C. The Single Remedy

D. The Minimum Dose

E. Approach to Diagnosis

F. The Totality of Symptoms

G. Summary of the Homeopathic Treatment Method

New Remedies for Homeopathic Plant Treatment

A. Remedies Prepared from Agricultural Chemicals

B. Parasite, Pest and Companion Plant Remedies

C. Special Remedy Preparation Methods

Suppression and New Plant Diseases

The Role of Experiments and Experience

A. Homeopathy and the Experimental Approach

B. Gaining Experience in Homeopathic Treatment

C. Types of Experience

D. Old Wisdom and a New Future

Small is Beautiful

Genes and Feedback Loops

The Powerful Placebo

Rules of Repetition

4. Agriculture

The Commercial Method

The Natural Method

The Chemical Method

Genetic Engineering and Biological Control

Modern Farming Methods

A Real Alternative

5. Soil Structure

Soil Horizons

Elimination

Organic Matter

Ecosystems

Deposition

Nutrients

Nutrients in Agriculture

6. Plant Structure and Tissues

7. Using Homeopathic Remedies

8. Treatment of Plant Diseases Arising from Nutrient Imbalances

Ammonium carbonicum

Borax

Calcarea carbonica

Calcarea fluorica

Calcarea phosphorica

Cuprum metallicum

Cuprum sulphuricum

Ferrum metallicum

Ferrum phosphoricum

Ferrum sulphuricum

Kalium carbonicum

Kalium muriaticum

Kalium nitricum

Kalium permanganatum

Kalium phosphoricum

Kalium sulphuricum

Magnesium carbonicum

Magnesium muriaticum

Magnesium phosphoricum

Magnesium sulphuricum

Manganum

Molybdenium

Natrium carbonicum

Natrium muriaticum

Natrium phosphoricum

Natrium sulphuricum

Nitricum acidum

Phosphorus

Silicea

Sulphur

Urea

Zincum metallicum

9. Companion Plants as Homeopathic Remedies

Allium cepa

Hyssopus officinalis

Mentha viridis/piperita/sativa spp.

Tropaeolum majus

Ocimum spp. minimum/basilicum

Ricinus communis

Salvia officinalis

Sambucus nigra

Satureia hortensis

10. Plant Pests

10.1 General Insect Remedies

General Remedies

A. Latrodectus spp. katipo/hasselti/mactans

B. Porcellio and Oniscus spp.

C. Tarentula hispanica/cubensis

D. Theridion

Treatment of Crucifers (Cruciferae/Brassicaceae)

A. Mentha viridis/piperita and similar spp.

B. Bacillus thuringiensis

C. Pyrethrum

D. Salvia officinalis

E. Hyssopus officinalis

Treatment of Cucurbits (Cucurbitaceae)

A. Thuja occidentalis

B. Bufo

Treatment of True Grasses (Gramineae/Poaceae)

Viburnum opulus

Treatment of Pulses (Leguminosae/Fabaceae)

Satureia hortensis

Treatment of Nightshades (Solanaceae)

Sambucus nigra

10.2 Remedies for Aphids and Scale Insects

Treatment of Crucifers (Cruciferae/Brassicaceae)

A. Aphidius spp.

B. Chrysopidae spp.

C. Syrphid larva

Treatment of Cucurbits (Cucurbitaceae)

A. Coccinella septempunctata

B. Coccus cacti

Treatment of Nightshades (Solanaceae)

Tropaeolum majus

10.3 Remedies for Beetles

Treatment of Nightshades (Solanaceae)

Cantharis

10.4 Remedies for Whitefly and Flies

General Remedies

Encarsia formosa

10.5 Remedies for Caterpillars

Treatment of Crucifers (Cruciferae/Brassicaceae)

Bombyx processionea

Treatment of Pulses (Leguminosae/Fabaceae)

Camphora

10.6 Remedies for Nematodes and other Worms

Treatment of Roses (Rosaceae)

Tanacetum vulgare

Treatment of Mints (Labiatae/Lamiaceae)

Teucrium marum

10.7 Remedies for Mites

Treatment of Crucifers (Cruceiferae/Brassicaceae)

A. Amblyseius spp. cucumeris/californicus/mackenzie

B. Bovista

C. Ricinus communis

D. Trombidium muscae domesticae

10.8 Remedies for Snails and Slugs

Treatment of All Plant Types

A. Helix tosta

B. Rumina decollata

C. Hyposmocoma molluscivora

D. Leucochloridium paradoxum

E. Absinthium

F. Quassia

11. Bacterial, Viral and Fungal Diseases

A. Nutrition and Fertilisers and Organic Practices

B. Germ theory

C. Fungi

Treatment of Asters, Daisies, Sunflowers (Asteraceae/Compositae)

Ferrum sulphuricum

Treatment of Cucurbits (Cucurbitaceae)

A. Ferrum metallicum

B. Ferrum phosphoricum

Treatment of True Grasses (Gramineae/Poaceae)

A. Aconitum napellus

B. Secale cornutum

C. Ustilago maydis

D. Berberis vulgaris

E. Belladonna

Treatment of Mints (Labiatae/Lamiaceae)

Lacticum acidum

Treatment of Nightshades (Solanaceae)

Ocimum minimum/basilicum

Treatment of Pulses (Leguminosae/Poaceae)

A. Aconitum napellus

B. Chamomilla

Treatment of Roses (Rosaceae)

A. Lapis albus

B. Belladonna

C. Natrium salicylicum

D. Salicylicum acidum

E. Allium cepa

Treatment of Grapevines (Vitaceae)

A. Hyssopus officinalis

B. Valeriana officinalis

12. Injuries

Arnica montana

Calendula

Cantharis

Carbo vegetabilis

Magnesium carbonicum

Silicea

13. Weeds & Allelopathy

14. Weed Remedies

Athyrium filix-femina

Foeniculum sativum

Ruta graveolens

Silicea

Tingis cardui

Vaccinium myrtillus

Publisher´s Note

15. The Repertory

Index of Remedies and Nutrients

Index of Pests and Diseases

List of Abbreviations

Bibliography

Images

Preface

With this book Vaikunthanath Das Kaviraj has pioneered a radically new method of pest control for plants. Making use of his extensive experience as a homeopath, he has been able to draw parallels between humans and plants, so enabling him to transfer his knowledge to the treatment of plants. The results have been astonishing, encouraging him to undertake further studies and research in this area: this book is the fruit of his exciting and innovative work. He has been able to find suitable remedies for many problems in agriculture, so making it feasible for farmers to use considerably reduced or even zero input of herbicides and insecticides.

The result is that the health of the plant organisms is evidently strengthened and the plants become “immune” to the disease agent, as shown by numerous experiments in South America. The harvest is increased so that the input of artificial fertilisers can be correspondingly reduced or even omitted altogether. Further remedies have been arrived at from observations and from the successful use of similar remedies. It has not yet been possible to confirm all these results with large-scale field studies, but a very encouraging start has been made, with further research sure to follow. So we encourage you to verify the efficacy of the remedies for yourselves, to start your own experiments, try out new remedies, and report back to us with your results. This will help us to update and improve this book, so adding to the sum of knowledge on homeopathic pest control in plants. In other words, the book is itself a living and expanding thing that we are sure will generate novel ideas and provide fresh impetus as the community of homeopathic plant users and experts grows ever larger. You can obtain the homeopathic preparations for the treatment of plants and soil described in the book either individually or as a set from Narayana Publishers.

Against a backdrop of increasing pesticide contamination of our foodstuffs and drinking water, and in view of the increasing impoverishment of our soil, this timely book on the use of homeopathy for fields and gardens inspires us with hope for a “velvet” green revolution and a viable alternative to the use and abuse of conventional pesticides and fertilisers in modern agriculture. For plant disease caused by bacteria, viruses, or fungi, through pest infestation to injury (due to replanting, for example), treatment with homeopathic remedies is a realistic alternative. This novel approach can be used not only by large-scale agricultural operations to effectively husband their plants while saving costs and deploying an environmentally friendly treatment strategy, it is also eminently suitable for the hobby gardener, who is certain to find an astonishingly wide range of useful homeopathic plant treatments for those annoying problems nature throws up, from aphid infestation to an attack of fungus in fruit trees.

We wholeheartedly encourage you to contribute your ideas and experiences on the use of the homeopathic preparations described in the book by visiting our forum at www.narayana-publishers.com.

The Publishers

1. Foreword

Homeopathy for agriculture has advantages over any other method that may not be apparent at first sight. Switching to homeopathy in agriculture entails, however, a big farewell to a large amount of fossil-fuel consumption. We may therefore view such a switch as a conscious ecological choice. We are living in a time in which ecological awareness is slowly growing in the consumer community, although it has not yet penetrated the consciousness of the primary producers; and where it has, wide-ranging solutions have not yet been implemented. The logistics involved are seemingly insurmountable because it requires a change so radical that the idea alone sends shivers down the spine. It will entail a fairly rapid transition back to animal traction and smaller farms, the return of the farmhand and a slower pace of life. Some countries will have little difficulty with such a transition, simply because they have not yet emerged from such an economy. Other countries with greater dependence on fossil fuels will have a far greater problem to deal with. Their pool of working animals is far too small and the knowledge to handle animal traction is scarce. As examples we will take India, the countries of Europe and the USA.

In India, 80% of transport still goes by animal traction over the short haul. Farms are small and provide food for a local market. They often use animal traction for heavy work like ploughing and harvesting or transport. Such a society can adapt relatively easily to a life without fossil fuels, because it has not yet fully emerged from such a state.

Europe will have greater difficulty, because Western society is heavily dependent on fossil fuels. On the other hand, the new EU members are just emerging from an animal traction farming system and have both the animals and the knowledge to teach their brothers from the West. While such a transition will be harsh for the West in the first 15 to 20 years, they will soon enough catch up.

The USA is in the worst position, because her entire agriculture is completely dependent on fossil fuels. They have no animals useful for traction, no knowledge of how to run a farm with animals and their farms are far too big to enable efficient farming without fossil fuels. Of all the countries in the world they will be the worst affected.

Agribusiness and Toxicity

Fossil fuel dependency is the greatest bane of agriculture as we know it. As geologist Dale Allen Pfeiffer points out in his article “Eating Fossil Fuels”, approximately 10 calories of fossil fuels are required to produce every 1 calorie of food eaten in the US. This ratio stems from the fact that every step in modern food production is fossil-fuel and petrochemical-powered: pesticides are made from oil and commercial fertilisers are made from ammonia, which is made from natural gas, production of which will peak about 10 years after oil.

With the exception of a few experimental prototypes, all farming implements such as tractors and trailers are constructed and powered using oil. Food storage systems such as refrigerators are manufactured in oil-powered plants, distributed across oil-powered transportation networks and usually run on electricity, which most often comes from natural gas or coal.

In the USA, the average piece of food is transported almost 1,500 miles before it gets to your plate. In Canada, the average piece of food is transported 5,000 miles from where it is produced to where it is consumed. A truck driver in the UK transports fish, which has arrived by plane from Pakistan, from London to Cornwall, where it is cleaned and packed in crates. Then it is transported to Scotland, where it is processed and canned, after which it is transported to London to be sold in supermarkets. Today, you buy noodles produced in Western China, transported to Shanghai, from where they are shipped to the EU or the USA. Those noodles have been halfway around the world before they even appear on your plate.

According to the Organic Trade Association, the production of one pair of regular cotton jeans takes three-quarters of a pound of fertilisers and pesticides. In short, people gobble up oil like two-legged SUVs.

Agriculture is possibly the most important industry mankind possesses, since it provides the food we all need in sufficient quantities. Yet agribusiness neglects agriculture and farmers, treating them as if they were commodities themselves that can be dealt with however it pleases them. Agribusiness is interested not in feeding the people but in making huge profits and satisfying the shareholders on the backs of the farmers. Agriculture needs to be taken out of the hands of agribusiness and given back to the farmers. Otherwise, they will decide what farmers grow and the consumer eats. They will decide which crops make profit and are worth growing. To give an example:

Growing corn, canola or some other oil-producing crop to artificially make diesel cars “environmentally friendly”, “carbon-neutral”, “sustainable” or whatever you want to call it, is both a misnomer and an oxymoron. The pollution remains the same, while taking arable land for growing food and driving up the price of food grains to levels the poor can no longer afford. This is an anti-social move, against the Declaration of Human Rights, and we must condemn it in the strongest possible terms. Therefore, agriculture is also in dire straits and for more than the reasons mentioned above, since it is extremely wasteful with fossil fuels and water, pollutes the groundwater and the wider environment and is therefore in need of a drastic overhaul.

Agriculture pollutes possibly more than industry, and the products used on the land are highly toxic in themselves. Moreover, to produce a kilo of meat, 10 litres of fossil fuels, 100,000 litres of water, and 16 kilos of grains are needed. Besides using chemicals instead of organic matter as fertiliser, the farmer uses toxic herbicides, pesticides and fungicides to grow and protect his crop against countless insect pests, diseases and fungi that attack his weak and obese plants. These fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides and fungicides are all made from fossil fuels and cause severe pollution in their own right. They all leach into the groundwater and rivers, which wash them into the seas, where they kill coral reefs, fish, amphibians and crustaceans, or make them dangerous to eat.

The poisoned insects are in turn poisoning the birds and small animals that eat them: the toxins enter the food chain in this way. The number of diseases derived from excess poisons on our food has not even been considered, let alone studied in any systematic manner. Yet some researchers have made the first steps in identifying which poison belongs to which disease. If we carry on in this manner, soon we will be flooded with new diseases and modern medicine will chase the accompanying germ as the culprit, leading to nothing but more suffering.

The modern push for genetic engineering is wishful thinking based on folly, since the “pesticide plant” already kills the greatest pollinators of all – the bees. Evidently, the pollen produced by such plants is toxic for bees too. Other genetically modified plants not modified with a pesticide generator restrict butterflies by poisoning the caterpillars that feed on them, which no longer reach the pupa stage. Butterflies are also important pollinators. It appears that such practices will rapidly lead to widespread famine, since we need the pollinators for most of our crops.

Diseased and pest-infested crops cannot absorb the full amount of CO2 because diseased and infested tissues reduce their uptake by at least 50%. There is another 30% reduction in plants treated with pesticides and fungicides. When we consider that 30% of all crops worldwide are lost and more are affected, we see that this also adds to the atmosphere’s woes. From IPM (Integrated Pest Management) it has become evident that plants treated with non-toxic control measures grow faster and more vigorously than their chemically treated cousins.

Moreover, if we are to reduce greenhouse gases, we need to reduce the use of fossil fuels. An agriculture that uses the Similicure method described in this book uses 50% less fossil fuels, now used to make pesticides, fungicides and herbicides, fertiliser and other substances worked into the soil. Such a reduction is phenomenal, and contributes to the reduction in CO2. Hence the switch to the Similicure method will reduce greenhouse gases in more than one way. The final amount of CO2 reduction will be in the order of 200%, when all things are considered.

A Quantum Leap

What is required is a revolution in our thinking. We have to remove the blinkers of linear tunnel vision and make the quantum leap to lateral vision. We have to learn that everything is part of a whole and therefore connected. We are as much part of it as everything else and what we do to each part we do to ourselves. We must realise that when we pollute our food, we can no longer have right thoughts – what you eat is what you are. This is not just a simple slogan without meaning but a profound insight. What do you want to be? Clean or poisoned? For that is the choice you have, as a consumer. You are the largest group and can enforce legislation, as the example from California – where 200 dangerous pesticides were banned by public demand – has shown.

Nature works through harmony – the so-called struggle for life is a hoax. While nature also entails the principle “eat or be eaten”, food is never in excess, except in our food crops. They are by their very nature unnatural. Nature does not like excess and will redress the situation by creating sudden death – disease or pests. Hence to grow them without any damage we have to imitate nature to the point where she believes everything is in balance. Therefore, plants that help each other have been grown together since ancient times, like tomatoes and basil, beans and potatoes, corn and potato and other plants and herbs. The same can be achieved by using these plants as remedies, since they have the same effects.

The Law of Similars is applicable throughout nature. Like produces like, cures like and attracts like in each and every respect. Therefore, it is easy to understand that like also imitates like and that like neutralises like. Applied to agriculture, this means that what grows naturally together will also work harmoniously in potency. Moreover, all natural predators can be used as remedies, following the same principle. The same goes for pheromones, allelopathy and allelopathic chemicals. Fungi and bacteria can also function in the same way. Thus a precise and accurate model of pest and disease control is available, without the drawbacks of resistance, pollution and added poisons or disease, or the subsequent need for stronger poisons.

The implications are that with homeopathic remedies, plants will not only be healthier and therefore increase CO2 uptake, but they will also grow more vigorously, thus increasing the CO2 uptake of the entire crop. In this way, a 100% increase may be achieved. Coupled with the reduction in fossil fuel use, the total reduction in greenhouse gases may approach 200%. This is the best solution for the reduction of CO2 levels, together with the project to green the desert mentioned below. Since we can improve the uptake of CO2 by 200% for 25% of the earth’s surface and do the same with another 25% that consists of sick forests, we have already gained a tremendous advantage.

In combination with the Greening of the Desert programme, we can increase the percentage of arable land and plant forests to sustain the arable land with sufficient rain and provide an ever larger percentage of CO2 uptake. Of course it is self-evident that we must also put an immediate stop to unsustainable logging – not only in the Amazon, but equally in Australia, the USA, Canada and South East Asia. All forests cut down must be replaced – which in the case of the Amazon will be an enormous challenge. Otherwise any project that aims at reduction of CO2 is simply an exercise in futility.

Elsewhere, we explain the need for and advantages of minimum doses of remedies suitable for the entire syndrome of symptoms before you. Here we deal with a different concept, where the whole is more important than its parts. We must go from the general to the particular, since we must first understand the whole before we can understand the functions of the parts. When we look around us in nature we see that trees will give each other space to grow – they simply develop more branches out of the way of their neighbour. Each plant provides the biome for other plants, and we can recognise relationships between plants that share similar medicinal effects, pheromones, allelochemicals, tastes or other features. From these relationships we can learn how the whole works and how each creature has its place in the cycle.

Soil improvers are known in agriculture as manure, compost and slurry, which were traditionally produced at the farm and spread over the land. It was left to the worms to work them into the soil and the soil remained healthy.

With the beginning of the so-called Agricultural Revolution, chemical fertilisers were introduced, which seemed to do away with both the smell and the flies associated with manure and compost. It also appeared that the crops fared well from the regular inputsof fertiliser, which seemingly adapted to the lifecycle of the plants.

Potassium and nitrogen during the growing phase produced larger and stronger plants. Increasing the phosphorus content during flowering and fruitsetting seemed also to produce a bigger and better-looking crop. However, this increase occurred with a simultaneous loss of taste. The food produced ceased to be healthy. As in human society, where people became overweight from fast food, the plants became simply obese.

When pests and diseases subsequently increased, requiring ever-larger doses of poison, the food produced became literally dangerous to eat. Apart from excessive amounts of nitrogen, some compounds of which are carcinogenic, large amounts of poisons like DDT and the organochlorides were also consumed. This occurred despite best practices to avoid administering the chemicals during a specified period before human consumption (“withholding periods”) and the advice to wash fruit and vegetables thoroughly before consumption.

Rudolph Steiner was the first to see that bare soil cultivation with chemical fertilisers was the wrong way to proceed. He developed several preparations from cow manure (B500) and pure silica (B501) to improve the soil without the stink and the flies. His preparations restore soil microbial life, add the necessary nutrients in a form that plants can digest and improve soil structure.

Here we would like to present some of his findings and offer the general public the possibility to do away with chemicals in the garden altogether.

Consciousness: the Missing Link

Since consciousness lies at the root of all life, from the elemental to the complex, it is with consciousness that we have to approach the growing of crops. The Puranas (ancient Hindu scripts), describe how consciousness in living beings comes in four stages:

In seed form, consciousness is found in stone and rock. Diamonds are crystals that grow and growth is impossible without consciousness.

In plants, consciousness assumes the seedling phase. Here too, growth determines the conscious aspect.

In animals, consciousness is like a fully-grown plant, before flowering sets in. Animals have personality and the ability to learn, but not to philosophise or to think abstractly.

In humans, consciousness is like a plant in the bud. If humans come to self-realisation and unconditional love, the bud begins to bloom.

To those who argue that lower life forms have no soul and thus no consciousness, we offer the following free rendering of a conversation between King Bharadwaja and Sage Bhrigu, found in the “Mahabharata (a Sanskrit epic from ancient India credited to Vyasa that includes the Bhagavad Gita). Their arguments have been adapted to include modern terminology. The two men discuss these issues on the following lines:

The Sage: “The parallels are quite a lot closer than we may think at first. I mean, what it says in the human materia medica, how can it have any bearing on plant life? By seeing the plant in a similar manner as a human being. The plant has its mouth in the ground – the roots. At the junction of root and stem, where the former becomes the latter, we find the heart and the source of the circulation, which brings nitrogen up and sugars down. Digestion, respiration, vision, urinary organs and sweat glands are all in the leaves. So the plant is like a human being in many respects and suffers from similar diseases and parasites.”

The King: “Next you are going to tell me a plant has consciousness too. Trees have life, but they must be blind, deaf, without smell, taste and touch.”

In response to the King’s comments about the senses and the elements that belong to them, the Sage continued: “You talk about the aggregate of the five Great Creatures, which create the material world and govern the senses that appertain to it. In the Mahabharata there is a nice story that illustrates why plants are more like us than you think.”

King Bharadwaja was asking the Sage Bhrigu about the senses and the elements that belong to them.

The Sage: “The ear partakes of the element of space, the nose of earth, the tongue of water, the touch of air or wind and the eyes of light or fire. All creatures, both mobile and immobile, are composed of these five Great Creatures.”

Bharadwaja had his doubts about the veracity of this statement and asked why thesefive elements are not visible in immobile creatures.

The King: “Trees don’t have any heat in their bodies. They have no motion and are made of dense particles. The five elements are not visible in them. Trees don’t see, don’t hear, have no smell or taste organs and cannot touch anything.”

The Sage: “Exactly. That’s what I think too. But you know as well as I do that trees do have a lot of space in them in the inter- and intra-cellular spaces. They always produce leaves, fruits and flowers and as a consequence they have heat in them too, causing the leaves to drop. They also get sick, wither and dry, showing they have a sense of touch, for how else can disease touch them? From the sound of wind, thunder and fire, fruits and leaves drop down, so the trees can hear and must have ears. What else is there to say about this? There is even a book, ‘The Secret Life of Plants’, which describes this consciousness.”

Bhrigu had a few things more to say too:

“A creeper winds its way around a tree, up and up, even if it has grown a distance away from the tree. It will seek out the tree without fail and then climb up its trunk. Blind things cannot find their way, thus proving that plants have eyes. Also, the leaves and flowers are held so that they follow the sun, catching as much light as they can throughout the day, proving trees have sight and movement. They bring forth flowers in due season as a reaction to certain scents, such as the burning of incense. They drink water by their roots and catch diseases, which can be cured by diverse means. This proves they have taste. They are susceptible to pleasure and pain, caused by weather and man, in cutting and breaking them; and they will grow anew, showing they have life. They suck up water and grow and become humid. If there were no water in trees, then why does green wood generally not burn? So you see that the immobile creatures also partake of all the properties of all other creatures. Therefore, I say they are not too much different from humans, although similar states may look very different.”

Modern findings, such as the ideas on the consciousness of plants expressed in Thompson and Bird’s “The Secret Life of Plants” (1973), can be seen as an extension of such discussions. While Bhrigu may have used terms not acceptable to modern science, his exposition is rather scientific in my view. Similarly, we do not accuse Newton of using unscientific terms, although a modern formulation of the law of gravity may sound very different from his. Scientific language has also developed over the ages. We only have to look in “Black’s Medical Dictionary”, to see how terms have changed in the last fifty years. That this is due to more refined observational techniques, rather than to a better understanding, is of course conveniently forgotten. Yet in the same way that we have brought observational accuracy to the highest possible degree, the Vedic seers (Indian priests in the tradition of the Veda) calculated time from the atom and came up with an accuracy we have not even matched.

Consciousness may be seen as the unifying factor, in that it is common to everything, even to what you and I designate as dead and inert matter. For even dead matter is the product of consciousness. A car is also the product of consciousness, like a table and a chair.

If we prepare an elemental or vegetable substance according to either the homeopathic method or the Steiner method, we discover a liberation of this consciousness, available in that element or vegetable matter. By adding these preparations to the soil, it becomes a harmonious living organism, which conveys this harmony to the plants that grow in it. The fruits we may harvest from such plants will add to our own harmony as well.

Healthy living is not just buying and eating good food. It is a complete and total concept, which includes the way we live and use the land. Whether for living, growing food or letting the plants remain wild, harmonious use of the land is of prime importance to our own survival. With these preparations we can create optimum conditions for growing food and living harmonious healthy lives. This frees up the time for us to contemplate the purpose we were put on earth for and to put this into practice.

According to Steiner, “the biodynamic preparations have the function of strengthening the plant’s constitution.’’ He seems to have considered the plant constitution to be an entity of its own, applying to all plants, in an equal manner. This perhaps resembles the level of consciousness – seedling stage – that influences the general constitution. After all, we see the same in humans and animals, where the level of consciousness determines also the diseases these constitutions are prone to. However, within this general conscious constitution, there are further subdivisions, obvious from the enormous differentiation we find in the vegetable kingdom as well as the animal kingdom.

2. Introduction to the Second Edition

The enthusiasm with which the first edition of this book was received by the public – orders came in before the book was even printed – inspired us to excel ourselves to develop the book’s underlying ideas into more than just a simple homeopath’s dream. We were very happy to present the first edition of “Homeopathy for Farm and Garden”. We felt it was a very satisfying achievement to present this revolution in agriculture to the general public, for we felt there was definitely an unmet need for this type of approach.

Having used the original version while teaching and researching at the Similicure School of Homoeopathy Research Department in India, we wanted to make the book more user-friendly. The alphabetical arrangement was somewhat cumbersome to use and we wanted to make it easier to find the correct remedy for each problem. The alphabetical arrangement is in some ways impractical, since it requires a great deal of searching in the book for the correct remedy for each problem.

For this reason, we asked the publisher to change the book’s layout to make it more suitable as a practical reference work. Even the best layout will always fall somewhat short of perfection, but with its new look we have certainly made it much easier to use. We have also added many new remedies, giving you a better choice in selecting the proper one and enabling more specific treatment.

The remedies have been illustrated with small photos of the relevant pests, diseases or nutrient problem, so that identification has been made much simpler. All images are in full colour and we also provide a description of the pest.

Aphids are common everywhere and there are about 4,000 species worldwide, with around 250 identified as serious pests. Their appearance varies from transparent to glossy green, light green, lemon yellow, light brown, peach-coloured, pink, light red, blue, white and black. A range of aphid species all react to the remedy Coccinella.

However, some pests require specific predator remedies, depending on the particular plant infested by the prey species. For example, carrot whitefly require a remedy made from a different type of lacewing to the whitefly on cabbage.

From these examples, it is clear that this edition will enable a more precise way of tackling and treating plant pests and diseases than anything that has been on the market until now. We hope the hobby gardener as well as the professional grower will take advantage of the possibilities offered here.

It is obvious that we have now something that is more robust and more useful than the smaller first volume. Whereas in the first edition we relied on orthodox reports and extrapolation, this present edition contains the fruits of many experiments conducted by ourselves and all those who have contributed from their own experience.

We would like to draw your attention to the fact that some remedies are mentioned in every chapter. This is not a repetition of what is in each, but we have collated the knowledge we have of each remedy in each different field of application.

Such remedies are called polychrests, since they cover a very wide and often opposing range of symptoms. There are many polychrests among the elementary substances, but also under the acids and salts formed by their compounds.

Silicea is one such example: it is a remedy for fungi, useful for treating pests and injuries, while as an eradicator of weeds it also provides green manure. The description of Silicea you may know from the first edition has now been subdivided under the separate headings of the new chapters in this book. Hence each chapter presents a different aspect of the remedy Silicea. There are several more that have been subdivided in this way, as they also cover different aspects of agricultural application.

Some remedies only have a single application, others are useful against both pests and diseases. Yet others may be active not only against these but may also be useful in nutrient problems and as a weed controller or soil improver.

We have introduced many new remedies useful against pests, most derived from Integrated Pest Management or IPM, without the disadvantages attached to biological control and at a fraction of the cost. We can now offer specific control for several pests, such as whitefly, cabbage fly, spider mite, red-legged earth mite and several others, with excellent results.

We have also introduced some new remedies for weeds, a subject we had almost completely neglected in the first edition, except for mentioning some possible remedies for this purpose. Since weeds are a great problem for all farmers, but especially for organic or biodynamic farmers of whatever persuasion, we found it necessary to undertake the relevant research. While weeds formerly had to be removed by hand, remedies can now be applied with excellent effect, so avoiding the tedium of weeding.

Another important development concerns the classification of the remedies. Whereas initially we used the well-known remedies from the human materia medica extrapolated to plants, we soon gained new insights in this area which called this simple approach into question.

Of course some of these human materia medica remedies remain useful for plants, as our earlier discoveries indicated. However, plants face specific problems not found among the human population, such as particular insect pests, which require a completely different set of remedies.

Starting from scratch, the first remedy made of a predator – Coccinella – set us on the trail to try out more remedies made in the same vein. After all, for humans we also have a set of remedies for our specific diseases, like cholera and scarlet fever, to name but a few. These epidemics are visited upon plants in the form of pest attacks, which may and often do differ from one plant family to the next.

As with pests, diseases take different forms in different plants. While some diseases are visited upon several plant families, others restrict themselves to certain species only. This led to the classification of plants into constitutional types, according to their botanical groupings. Thus the Cruciferae/Brassicaceae and the Gramineae/Poaceae are two distinct constitutional types. They find their expression in the susceptibility to particular pests and diseases, depending on the soil and the climate of the biome. While both may suffer from aphids, the Brassicas are more prone to mosaic virus, while the Grasses are susceptible to yellow dwarf virus, glume blotch and ergot or smut.

Each requires its own set of remedies for pests and diseases. Some of those remedies – like the diseases – are not restricted to a single plant family.

Humans mainly use food plants from only a limited number of botanical families. These are the following:

Cruciferae/Brassicaceae

Cucurbitaceae

Gramineae/Poaceae

Labiatae/Lamiaceae

Leguminosae/Fabaceae

Piperaceae

Rosaceae

Solanaceae

Most of our herbs come from the Labiatae/Lamiaceae family, while our fruits mainly come from the Rosaceae family.

Hence we are dealing with a limited number of constitutional types, which makes the work with plants a great deal easier than it looked at first sight. The task of ordering such a profusion of possible remedies for so many possible crops appeared at first daunting, if not insurmountable. Even in the first edition there are only hints at some of the concepts we present here in a reasonably conclusive form.

Assuming the similia principle to be at work, we concluded that the remedies of a plant family must be effective on food plants that belong to the same plant family. From tests in the field we discovered this is indeed the case, which has made the finding of a remedy for a particular problem even easier. What seemed difficult at first glance has been greatly simplified by the strict application of the similia principle.

The different diseases and pests of food plants are therefore likely to differ in each plant family. Hence it is possible to extrapolate from the problems the precise remedies that will solve those problems.

Relationships

The final addition is a listing of the relationships between the remedies, according to the current state of knowledge. The information under the following headings is valid provided the symptoms agree:

Antidote to: the featured remedy will counter the action of the remedies listed.

Antidoted by: the remedies listed here will counteract the featured remedy.

Compare: lists remedies with very similar action to the featured remedy; the same remedies often also work as antidotes.

Complementary: the remedies listed here will complete action begun by the featured remedy or provide complementary constitutional treatment.

Follows well after: the featured remedy often proves helpful when administered after the remedy or remedies listed.

Inimical: if the featured remedy has worked well, these remedies will tend to produce negative reactions if given subseuently. This must of course be avoided at all times.

Feedback

We would greatly appreciate reader comments and feedback, which we will endeavour to incorporate in later editions of this book.

This is the beginning of a revolution in agriculture and the developments look extremely promising. We are hard at work to verify all the indications set forth in the second edition on large-scale agricultural plots, under all possible circumstances. The remedies have, in our view, exactly those characteristics which distinguish them from chemical agriculture – they are efficacious, safe, ecologically harmless and do not lead to resistance, while also providing the cheapest possible means to maintain the farm and garden in optimum condition for growing plants for food, pleasure or other reasons.

We strongly encourage all readers to record their observations and to send them in to us. The experience and knowledge collected in this way will help us to expand and improve future editions of this book.

Of course the book has become bigger and therefore more expensive. We feel it is well worth its higher price, since its usability has increased considerably, while also offering more than twice as many remedies and more extensive knowledge compared to the first edition.

Finally I apologise for any discrepancies or errors that may have crept in despite scrupulous editing. I express the hope that the book may serve the homeopathic fraternity and all those interested in growing plants, whether for pleasure or for a living, in the manner intended.

3. Foundation

Easily Understandable Homeopathic Principles

In order to understand what homeopathy entails, it is imperative to know its fundamental principles. In the following pages I will lead you through these principles, which will guide you when treating plants, including commercial crops. The same principles apply to the treatment of people and animals as well as plants, since they are based on natural laws that are applicable throughout nature and on all its great variety of creatures. Even Mother Earth herself can be treated, but her bulk and size demand an approach focused on the specific local habitat.

These quintessential concepts are easily understandable and underpin the practical examples offered in the chapters on homeopathic treatment, based on experience. They follow nature’s cyclical patterns and involve the “originating intelligence”. They convey truths based on scientific ideas rather than speculative hypothesis. They are as valid now as when they were first formulated by Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy. This German physician followed in the footsteps of three other epoch-making figures in the history of medicine. We may call these four figures the Acharyas of medicine, a Vedic term for a spiritual teacher.

Hippocrates, the Observer, introduced the art of clinical observation as the necessary foundation for pathological diagnosis. The work of Galen, the Disseminator, ensured the teachings of Hippocrates and other ancients spread with powerful authority throughout the medical world. Paracelsus, the Assailer, was a staunch critic of sloppy thinking, applying chemical as well as physical analysis to the practice of medicine. Finally, Hahnemann, the Experimenter, gave us the greatest gift of all - a fully developed scientific system of healing, involving the quantum leap of vision and paradigm shift mentioned in the Foreword and discussed further below.

Awareness and understanding of the following six basic concepts will enable you to apply them effectively for plant treatment:

A. The Cause and Cure of Disease

B. The Law of Similars

C. The Single Remedy

D. The Minimum Dose

E. The Art of Diagnosis

F. The Totality of Symptoms

After outlining these guidelines in general and explaining how to implement them for plant treatment, this section concludes with a summary of the homeopathic method. The remainder of the chapter has a range of discussion points on plant treatment and homeopathy in general.

A. The Cause and Cure of Disease

This is how Hahnemann sums up the aims of his integrated and rational approach to medicine :1

The physician’s highest and only calling is to make the sick healthy, to cure, as it is called.

The highest ideal of cure is the rapid, gentle and permanent restoration of health; that is, the lifting and annihilation of the disease in its entire extent in the shortest, most reliable and least disadvantageous way, according to clearly realizable [inseeable] principles.

(Organon §§ 1-2)

He explains that “a genuine practitioner of the medical art” must have knowledge and awareness of the following:

1. What is to be cured in diseases – discernment of the disease, the indicator

2. What is curative in medicines – knowledge of medicinal powers

3. How to apply this medicinal knowledge to the indicated disease – clear principles

4. What is the appropriate remedy adapted to the case – selection of the remedy

5. How to prepare the medicine and give the exact amount required – the right dose and properly timed repetition of doses

6. What obstacles to recovery may exist, and how to clear them away

7. What things disturb health, engendering and maintaining disease, and how to remove them from healthy people

By applying this knowledge in practice, health may be permanently restored in the sick, and sustained in those who are well.

(Organon §§ 3-4)

Hahnemann and Kent stress that we cannot know the ultimate causes of disease, which are inevitably hidden from view:

Causes exist in such subtle form that they cannot be seen by the eye. There is no disease that exists of which the cause is known to man by the eye or the microscope. Causes are infinitely too fine to be observed by any instrument of precision. They are so immaterial that they correspond to and operate upon the interior of man. They are ultimated in the body in the form of function- or tissue-changes that finally are recognised by the eye.

(Kent, Lectures on Homoeopathic Philosophy)

Therefore disease … is not what allopaths believe it to be. Disease is not to be considered as an inwardly hidden Wesen separate from the living whole, from the organism and its enlivening dynamis, even if it is thought to be very subtle. It is this absurdity that has for thousands of years given to the hitherto system of medicine all those ruinous directions that have fashioned it into a truly calamitous art.

(Organon § 13)

Thus, rather than being a distinct entity in itself, disease arises solely because the vital energy of the organism is disturbed:

A natural disease is never to be regarded as some noxious matter situated somewhere inside or outside the person.

(Organon § 148)

Conventional approaches aim to eradicate disease as a supposed separate and direct cause. In what I call “chemical agriculture”, massive doses of highly toxic substances are applied to combat specific plant pests and diseases. Hahnemann says the following about such practice, described as “antipathic treatment” or the use of “opposing” medicines:

This is a very faulty, merely symptomatic treatment wherein only a single symptom, thus only a small part of the whole, is one-sidedly provided for. It is evident that aid for the totality of the disease, which is alone what the patient desires, is not to be expected.

(Organon § 58)

And further:

Had physicians been capable of reflecting upon such sad results of opposed medicinal application, they would have long since found the great truth: the true, enduring curative mode must be found in the exact opposite of such an antipathic treatment of disease symptoms.

(Organon § 61)

Hahnemann continues in this paragraph by pointing out that such treatment brings only temporary relief, invariably followed by aggravation. The results of modern agricultural practice confirm Hahnemann’s observation. The amount of chemicals used is massive and the build-up of resistance to diseases and pests is one of the consequences. From this perspective, the prevalent ideas within agricultural science are at best not very rational, and at worst entirely faulty.

As Kent notes:

We daily see that the antipathic and heteropathic methods have no permanence. By these means there are effected changes in the economy and changes in the symptoms but no permanent cure, the tendency being simply to the establishment of another disease, often worse than the first and without eradicating the first.

(Kent, ibid.)

In homeopathy, by contrast, we focus on the disturbances affecting the plants themselves. We view the problem laterally, addressing the underlying cause within the organism itself, as expressed through the symptoms it triggers and tackling “obstacles to recovery” impeding a return to health.

As explained earlier, the real reason for pests and diseases is inherent weaknesses combined with unnatural stress, caused by unsuitable growing conditions, including problems created by incorrect spacing, bare soil cultivation and reliance on chemical methods of feeding and pest and disease control, as well as acid rain.

With homeopathic treatment instead of targeting the disease, the centre of investigation is the patient that is suffering, whether person, plant or animal. To understand what needs to be cured, we must carefully examine the complete picture of the disease in terms of all the symptoms expressing departure from health, then match this “symptom totality” to the single individual medicine that most closely resembles it, the “simillimum”, following the Law of Similars.

B. The Law of Similars

Hahnemann traces the Law of Similars back to Hippocrates, although there are references to this concept in ancient writings such as transmissions of Vedic traditions in India, perhaps from as early as 5,000 years ago. The “Bhagavata Purana”, for example, expresses this idea:

O good soul, does not a thing, when applied therapeutically, cure a disease which was caused by that very same thing?

(K. D. Vyasa, Bhagavad Purana 1/5/33)

Hahnemann distinguishes his homeopathic approach based on the Law of Similars from “allopathic” or “heteropathic” methods which follow the Law of Contraries or Opposites, or sometimes no law at all:

There are just two main modes of medical treatment, the homeopathic and the allopathic. The homeopathic model bases all that it does on the exact observation of nature, careful experiments and pure experience. … The allopathic (or heteropathic) mode does not do this.

(Organon § 52)

This law of “like curing like” means that in order to permanently cure a disease, a remedy must be capable of causing the very same symptoms it is prescribed to treat:

The curative capacity of medicines therefore rests upon their symptoms being similar to the disease. … Each single case of disease is most surely, thoroughly, rapidly and permanently annihilated and lifted only by a medicine that can engender … a totality of symptoms that is the most complete and the most similar to the case of disease.

(Organon § 27)

Neither in the course of nature …, nor by the physician’s art, can an existing suffering or ill-being be lifted and cured by a dissimilar disease potence, be itever so strong, but solely by one that is similar in symptoms … according to eternal irrevocable natural laws.

(Organon § 48)

He also notes in his criticism of “isopathy” the difference between prescribing an identical substance (for example, by introducing unaltered “morbific matter”) and the “simillimum” which constitutes what is most similar to the disease. This very similar remedy stimulates the organism to react, and in doing so it is able to overcome these same symptoms:

Medicines only become remedies … capable of annihilating diseases, by arousing certain befallments and symptoms … thereby lifting and eradicating the symptoms already present.

(Organon § 22)

These conclusions were not hypothetical conjectures, but based on repeated observations during scientific experimentation by Hahnemann and his colleagues. Hahnemann was well aware that there was no known explanation of why or how this happened, and the perceived lack of a scientific rationale for the “mechanism of action” of homeopathy remains a significant obstacle to its acceptance. (Some suggested theories offering scientific foundations for dynamic homeopathic potencies are offered below.) However, practical experience and confidence in the reliability of his experimental methods prompted Hahnemann to set out his system for the relief of human suffering, despite fierce opposition.

This natural law of cure has authenticated itself … in all pure experiments and all genuine experiences; therefore it exists as fact. Scientific explanations for how it takes place do not matter very much.

(Organon § 28)

He carefully tested individual substances on healthy human volunteers in so-called “provings” (from the German Prüfung, meaning “test”), recording the results in detailed homeopathic materia medica (remedy information) listing their effects. These same lists also represented the symptoms which could be cured by each substance, provided it was administered singly, in suitably small doses.

C. The Single Remedy

This aspect should be given the utmost attention in terms of plant treatment, since it is often neglected in the treatment of humans, even among some of the homeopathic fraternity. This is the absolute necessity of administering only one remedy at a time.

In no case of cure is it necessary to employ more than a single simple medicinal substance at one time with a patient. For this reason alone, it is inadmissible to do so.

(Organon § 273)

It is wrong to use complex means when simple ones will suffice.

(Organon § 274)

D. The Minimum Dose

Although other physicians had followed the Law of Similars, Hahnemann’s introduction of the process of potentisation, to achieve a minimum dose, was unprecedented. Again, experimental trials led to this unique discovery, involving dilution and vigorous agitation (succussion) of ground or dissolved substances following strict and specific criteria, still used today in homeopathic pharmacies.

In his “Philosophy Lectures”, Kent highlights this method as follows:

Then it is not sufficient merely to give the drug itself, regardless of its form. It is not sufficient to give the crude drug, but the plane upon which it is to be given is a question of study. In a proving the crude drug may bring forth a mass of symptoms in one prover, but when a person is sick, those symptoms will not be touched by the crude drug.

(Kent, ibid.)

As plants are sensitive living beings, usually with small bodies (with the exception of trees) the necessity of the minimum dose cannot be stressed enough. As the power of a medicine increases with the reduction in quantity, if prepared according to the homeopathic method, it follows that the quantity given must diminish proportionately to the increase in potency.

A medicine … that is given in too large a dose, does much more damage… In strong doses, the more homeopathic the medicine is to the disease state, and the higher its potency, the more damage it will do … Too large doses … give rise to great misfortune, especially if … frequently repeated.

(Organon § 276)

Routinely prescribing repeated doses is not good practice, as indicated above. Hahnemann continues:

Not seldom, they endanger the patient’s life or make his disease almost incurable.

(Organon § 276)

Hahnemann further warns against repetition of the dose in the “Chronic Diseases” (reprint 1995) where he states the following:

(The medicines)… given in the most appropriate doses, were the less effective the oftener they were repeated. They served at last hardly even as weak palliatives.

(Hahnemann, Chronic Diseases)

When describing the particular administration method for the highest LM potencies, he notes that:

The same well-chosen medicine can now be given daily, even for months when necessary.

(Organon § 246, footnote 1, my emphasis)

Note that “can” and “if necessary” are the operative words here and practitioners would do well to heed them, for plants as much as for people.

Boenninghausen’s article on “The Value of High Potencies” expresses support for the following statements by Fincke:

For a scientific establishment of the curative power and efficiency of the high potencies, we cite the well-established law of nature, discovered by Maupertuis and mathematically proved by him; this we apply to therapy. This is the law of the least effects, by others called the Lex parsimoniae. The discoverer stated it in the following words: “La quantité d’action nécessaire pour causer quelque change ment dans la nature, est la plus petite qu’il soit possible,” i.e. the quantity of action necessary to produce any change in nature, is the smallest that is possible.

(Fincke, cited in Boenninghausen, Lesser Writings, reprint 2007)

Boenninghausen goes on to agree with Fincke’s view that:

This law of effects (de minimus maxima) appears therefore to be an essential and necessary complement to the law of homeopathy (similia similibus) and to occupy a similar place with it.

(Fincke, cited in Boenninghausen, ibid.)

In another article, “Three Precautionary Rules of Hahnemann” he also cites two quotations from Hahnemann’s “Chronic Diseases”:

If these … medicines do not act out their full time, while they are still acting, the whole cure will amount to nothing.

The fundamental rule in this respect remains. To allow the dose of the medicine selected … to complete its action undisturbed, so long as it visibly furthers the cure … a process which forbids every new prescription … as also the repetition of the same remedy.

(Hahnemann, Chronic Diseases, cited in Boenninghausen, ibid.)

I do not think that further quotations are required to impress upon the reader the necessity of using the single remedy and the minimum dose in plants, as this is plainly obvious from the writings of the old masters. Advice on how and when to administer homeopathic remedies is given within each section of the book.

E. Approach to Diagnosis

Effective diagnosis of a disease or health problem needing treatment requires a firm basis and homeopaths have used a seating analogy to express this. A stool with only two legs will not stand up: a minimum of three points of confirmation are needed for a viable diagnosis. If the seat has four legs and a backrest, support will be all the stronger. Five key points underpinning diagnosis for plants are as follows:

1. Soil

2. Weather

3. Nutrients

4. Flora and fauna

5. Biome or habitat

It is a quintessential truth that we must understand these five factors before we can make anything more than an educated guess about what is wrong. Lab reports and evidence from microscopic examinations may supplement these, but they are like the armrests of a chair: although they may look impressive, they are optional extras, rather than forming the main structure, and are not essential for clear assessment.

A good observer has five senses available to help diagnose problems:

1. Ears

2. Eyes

3. Nose

4. Tongue

5. Skin

With these senses, you can observe everything you need to know about the case at hand, so that you can diagnose and treat objectively, bearing in mind that:

Diseases are nothing other than alterations of condition in healthy people [or plants] which express themselves through disease signs.

(Organon § 19)

F. The Totality of Symptoms

Hahnemann explains how homeopathic diagnosis specifically involves an assessment of the complete symptom picture:

It will help the physician to bring about a cure if he can find out … the most significant factors in the entire history of a protracted wasting sickness, enabling him to find out its fundamental cause. … In these investigations, the physician should take into account the patient’s discernible body constitution … mental and emotional character … occupations, lifestyle and habits … age, sexual function, etc.

(Organon § 5)

Kent gives us the following description of this totality of symptoms:

The “totality of symptoms” means a good deal. It may be considered to be all that is essential to the disease. It is all that is visible and represents the disease in the natural world to the eye, the touch and external understanding of man.

(Kent, ibid.)

Particular attention must be given to the plant in its habitat, especially with pot plants. The